


his fake other half

by frypans



Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Timers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 02:16:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3711067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frypans/pseuds/frypans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just by looking at their reflection, a person sees their soulmate timer floating above their head. They can only see theirs and their other half's.</p><p>Of course the only thing Thomas sees is a timer that has just stopped but so he doesn't worry his parents, Thomas claims he's met his soulmate. This brings him to ask his roomate Minho to pose as his soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	his fake other half

"Please pretend to be my soulmate."

Comically, the insides of Minho's sandwich fell out onto his sheets. The pen in his grip found its way to the floor. "You freakin' want me to what?!" Of course he had heard him perfectly, part of him just wanted to hear those manic, once in a lifetime words again.

Thomas was already on the floor by Minho's bed. "Please, I'm just talking a weekend."

Minho leaned over and slapped him over the head. "What the fuck are you on?" He tried not to laugh at the almost kicked puppy like expression that found its way off Thomas' face as quickly as it had appeared.

"Nothing! Please Minho, I'm begging you."

Minho raised his eyebrows then rolled his eyes. "Give me a damn good reason to."

"My parents," Thomas complained. "You know how my timer has stopped, right? Like it hasn't gone to zero so I guess my soulmate's not dead, you know?"

Minho stiffened but nodded for Thomas to continue.

"But I mean it's just stopped! I look in the mirror and the numbers are still '39 days 2 hours 4 minutes and 2 seconds'," he recited. "I know it worried the shit out of them the first time I told 'em and they've considered a therapist since then."

"And you need me 'cause?"

"I told them I've met my soulmate already."

Minho chuckled. "Aw shit man, that was stupid."

"I know that already. But like, I thought since you haven't met them, you could pass as my soulmate? Please man, they're coming over this weekend. I'm on my knees here." Thomas looked up at him, pleading. "I know it's a weird situation and all but like... I really don't know who else to turn to."

Minho snorted. "Yeah whatever, just pay for my medical bill when your actual soulmate comes to beat me up."

Thomas reached over and punched his upper arm. "With these biceps, I doubt it." He grinned.

"Aw, already paying me compliments? Aren't you the sweetest soulmate ?"

Thomas got up off the floor and sat beside him, carefully avoiding the sandwich mess. "So what will we tell our friends?"

"The truth, you dumb shit. We can't pass the whole soulmate thing to them." Minho himself edged away from the mess that freakin' Thomas caused. "They'll understand obviously but they're gonna make jokes about this for years after man."

"You're probably right. The sacrifice is needed though... Okay, where did we meet?"

Minho gazed off into the distance. "It was 2am on a fateful day of Freshers week, we were both drunk as fu-"

"God no, Minho! Think of something cheesy like the sort you see in chick flicks."

Minho willed himself to not think of the time they actually met because 1. It was insanely weird and 2. It definitely belonged in a chick flick by his own standards.

"Okay, okay... I'm thinkin' of you right? And you're thinking of a meet up story 'cause I just signed on to call you stupid pet names and hold your hand." Minho leapt off the bed. "I'm gonna clean my sheets if you could move your ass."

"Minho-"

"Thomas," he imitated.

Thomas crawled off the bed with a haughty look. "Fine."

Minho smiled as he ripped off the sheets and headed for the door. "I'll be down in the laundry room if ya need me sweetcheeks."

Even with the door closed, he still heard Thomas groan.

x

Thomas' leg shook up and down and his hands were gripped tightly together even Minho noticed his knuckles slowly turning a shade of white.

Minho nudged his foot under the table. "Calm it, man. You're makin' me nervous."

Thomas looked up at him. "I can't help it, my heart's pounding.Shit, I don't think I can pull it- Holy F-" Thomas' eyes widened at what he saw through the window. "They just pulled up," he breathed.

"Give me your hand," Minho demanded. 

"My- What?"

"Do it."

Slowly Thomas placed his right hand into his. Minho then began drawing circles with his thumb over the back of Thomas' hand. Thomas stared down at their joined hands in shock. Minho rolled his eyes.

"Stop lookin' like a bush baby and start lookin' at me like Flynn to Rapunzel," Minho said with no embarrassment whatsoever. Everyone goes on and on and on about that scene and by everyone he meant Brenda and Teresa, two lovesick princesses in his own view.

A smile crept onto Thomas' face. "You always know the right words to say don't you."

"Damn straight. Now I'm going to kiss your hand when they enter the restaurant. Tell me when they're in view." 

They both ran through their PDA limits and kisses on the hand were most definitely not mentioned so Minho took advantage of that.

Thomas nodded, willing his ears to not turn a shade of red. "Y-Yeah." He saw his parents open the door to the place then smile at the waiter. "Now," he whispered.

Minho took his hand and slowly brought it to his lips, dropping a kiss onto it. Minho also took the liberty of looking at Thomas while doing so and smiled. Thomas tried not to notice how he felt him smile against his hand. Like he tried hard. Really hard. But the action was too weird, weird enough to be part of Top 10 Romantic moments of a movie. 

"Cute face, sunshine," Minho teased. "The colour pink suits your cheeks."

Mortified, Thomas pulled his hand away and brought them to his face. "Oh my god, Minho. Shut the hell up," he hissed.

But Minho wasn't listening, he looked upwards at the couple who arrived at the table and he stood up to greet them. He shook each of their hands individually as he said,"Afternoon Mr and Mrs Edson. I'm Minho, your son's soulmate." He shot them a charming smile and Thomas wondered what happened to his roommate. Not only had the boy shaped up his manners but he swapped his ripped jeans and muscle tanks for a simple dress shirt and chinos. It took Thomas a good ten minutes to stop giggling.

Thomas' mom smiled back. "Just call me Karen, Minho. And he's just David," she said pointing to her husband.

"Hope we're not interrupting," David said with a sort of look that made Minho want to punch his lights out.

"Dad," Thomas whined.

Minho sat down again but beside Thomas this time and as he did stroked Thomas' cheek. He then laughed and Thomas struggled to find the balance between wondering if the laugh was fake or if he could get over the fact his best friend stroked his cheek.

"You had a bit of syrup there from breakfast this morning," Minho murmured just loud enough for his parents to hear. Thomas gave him a strange look that meant, 'what the fuck are you on Minho? we didn't even have breakfast because we slept in so late.' Or at least that's what Minho got from the furrowed eyebrows. 

Karen could not keep the delight off her face whereas David had an eyebrow raised possibly wondering whether to be stern or happy for his son. "So, have you guys been living together long?" Karen questioned.

Thomas looked up expectantly at Minho who grins. "No, Karen. Not yet. We just went out for breakfast today."

Thomas watched relief flow into his father who relaxed in his seat.

"However I am insanely envious of his roommate," Minho added, "With his god-like good looks I'm slightly worried."

Thomas kicked Minho's foot who did not even wince but his parents laughed having no idea Minho was just complimenting himself.

As his parents discussed what to eat Thomas leaned over to Minho and whispered, "You're an asshole."

"Currently, I'm your asshole so you can fuck off sugar cake," Minho replied and Thomas rolled his eyes.

The conversation was general and polite and by the main course Minho noticed Thomas finally lean back in his seat. He took it upon himself to take Thomas' hand and squeeze it. Of course he made sure both their hands were on the table and he watched the sweet smile find its way to Karen's face. Minho tried hard not to feel bad for lying straight to such a nice woman's face. He was fine lying to David. He was pretty sure the man took another look at the tattoo sleeve in progress he had on his left arm and hoped Minho wasn't really Thomas' soulmate and be all, 'surprise, Thomas is actually with a CEO's daughter.' Or something like that.

It was desert that began to set the edge back into the two boys.

David cleared his throat. "So tell me Thomas, when did you meet Minho? Surely you would have told us the day your timer reached the last few hour."

Minho began to feel slightly nervous for Thomas since, up until then, he was the one who had taken charge of telling the stories of all the sweet couple things they've never done. 

"I met him about two months ago, dad. "

Minho took it upon himself to wrap an arm around Thomas.

David raised his eyebrows. "But just over a month ago you told us your timer had paused at 39 days." There was accusation in his tone and Minho felt Thomas stiffen. 

Then the boy let out an embarrassed laugh. "This is going to be awkward to explain," Thomas began and Minho gave him a look. "I didn't know how you would feel about me having a guy as a soulmate..." He trailed off allowing a shaky and nervous tome to creep into his voice. "God it's stupid thinking of what I said now but the timer stopping was just an excuse. I just wasn't sure how you would react." Idea after idea kept popping into his head and he continued to add to his expanding lie. "After all, I saw your reactions to Aunt Ava and and Diana-"

"-Honey!" Karen interrupted. "It wasn't because they were both women! We were angry because they weren't really soulmates. It was unnatural."

Oh god. Minho fought the urge to stomp out of there but dropped his arm around Thomas to the boy's thigh and gave him a comforting squeeze. They had dug themselves an even larger whole than they thought.

"You two are just adorable together though," Karen exclaimed, "I can see Thomas managed to snag a good soulmate."

Minho weakly laughed. Wow was she so wrong.

David nodded. "Well at least we cleared that up."

Karen nodded. "Boys are you free tomorrow?" She asked moving on to a new, hopefully not so stressful subject.

They both shook their heads. 

"Good, we were hoping that we could meet for breakfast again tomorrow and you two could show us a bit of the sights? If that is okay with you both?"

"Absolutely Karen. We'd love to do that. How about we meet at iHop at say 11.30?" Minho asked much to the utmost shock of Thomas.

"That's perfect." Karen offered them each a warm smile. 

After some agonising minutes passed, the bill was paid and the two couples headed outside to the crisp November air. 

Thomas' parents said their goodbyes, each hugging him then shaking Minho's hand. They headed to their car which was conveniently parked facing where Minho and Thomas would walk. 

Minho grabbed Thomas' elbow and whirled him around slightly so that the smaller boy just about met his lips.

"Minho-!"

"From this angle it looks like I'm kissing you," he whispered, trying to avoid touching his friend's lips at this distance. Well not 'trying' per say, he would just made it look like an innocent accident if he were to actually kiss him. "Stop standing like an idiot and wrap your arms around me."

Thomas obliged but muttered, "I'll add that to a list if things I've never heard you say." He reached his arms up and around Minho's neck.

"Tilt your head a little."

"Well aren't you a perfectionist?" Thomas said as he did so, revealing more skin from his loose buttoned shirt.

Minho was just glad for the dimly lit street lights because there was no way in hell his complexion was normal but a definite shade of red. "Okay I think they've had a nice show. Give us your hand, pumpkin spice." He pulled away abruptly and reached out for Thomas' left hand.

They faced away from his parent's car and began walking down the street with their hands clasped. Minho began drawing circles with his thumb on the back of Thomas's hand, absentmindedly. But as soon as they turned a corner Minho dropped it.

"I had no idea about my Aunt," Thomas said, cutting through the noise of traffic of the city streets. "Ever since the arguments during our family Christmas a couple of years ago, I was terrified of having a soulmate who's a guy. "

"That story was real?" 

Thomas nodded. "Yeah, I haven't seen Aunt Ava since then... I guess it only makes our situation that much more difficult."

"Ya think?"

"You were good at handling it though. You made up it all on the spot and it even sounded pretty convincing! It's like you took all the times we've hung out and like, Nicholas Sparked the crap out of them."

"Thanks," Minho replied in a sort of strangled voice. He recovered quickly as he added, "all those movie nights at Brenda's have really paid off then."

"You could say that." Thomas grinned looking up at him. "Thank you so much for today. Couldn't have asked for a better fake soulmate."

Minho wanted Thomas' hand back just so he could squeeze it and kiss the fuck out of it. "Yeah okay, moon pudding. "

"That's not even a pet name."

"It is now, flower squash."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously, orange drop."


End file.
